Beyond

Ghosts

The two looked at eachother before looking back at him. "What?"

"I'm not an idiot." Lance replied shaking his head as he took his phone from Gwen's hand. "Thanks for getting this back unbroken."

He stroked his thumb over the orange case as Gwen and Miles seemed flustered. Clearly he had caught them off guard.

"H-how?" Miles asked tilting his head.

"Your voices are the same, that and I've had my suspicions for a while." Lance shrugged as he pushed the phone into his pocket. "You're both a bit too clumsy."

"Oh no, Miles genuinely is that clumsy." Gwen said shaking her head. "Let's go somewhere safe so we can talk, okay?"

"Yeah," Lance nodded, "that sounds like a good idea."

They arrived on the roof of the closest building. Lance let them scope the area out before coming to stand with him. He had refused to be dragged up the walls like an idiot, he used the fire escape like a normal person.

It was a lot colder up on the roof but Lance didn't mind. He quite enjoyed being somewhere quieter for a change.

He turned his attention back to the two Spiders and raised an expecting eyebrow. He most certainly wasn't going to be doing all the talking.

"So you figured it out, huh?" Gwen asked as she pulled her mask off. "How?"

Lance smiled. "Like I said I'm not an idiot and there were just little things I picked up."

"What did you mean by we were too clumsy?" Miles asked as Lance sat on the wall.

Clearly he was going to be doing more talking then he thought.

"You guys would be dropping things, tripping over things and just general clumsiness. But when Gordon tipped my chair back you both reacted before I could." Lance shrugged. "You guys were able to have both the worst and best reaction time, so I knew something was up."

"Good working out." Gwen nodded. "Should we kill him?"

Lance laughed making them both flinch. "I'd like to see you try." He mumbled.

"So you're okay with this?" Miles asked looking genuinely worried for a moment.

Lance smiled. "Of course I am, this is awesome, you guys are awesome."

"So what's it like being friends with superhero's?" Gwen asked shaking his shoulder with a smirk.

"Not too different from every day." Lance shrugged, then his heart stopped. He hadn't meant to say that.

"I'd like to think we're a little cooler than our school selves." Miles chuckled. "When exactly did you figure it out?"

"When you two both appeared on TV fighting together." Lance admitted looking across the city. "I knew you two knew eachother and I knew that you trusted eachother."

"You could tell that much from watching TV?"

Lance looked down at his shoes. "I used to have that, friends like you guys."

"Before you moved?" Miles frowned.

"Yeah, before I got here." Lance nodded crossing his arms. "But I'm getting better so... Yeah."

"You know we're here." Miles said placing his hand on Lance's shoulder. "If you ever need to talk we're here for you."

Lance managed to find a smile. "Thanks guys."

"Anytime dork." Gwen smirked. "You wanna tell us anything now?"

Lance lifted his gaze just in time to catch the sight of blue police lights blur past.

"Great timing crime." Miles sulked.

"You guys go, I'm gonna head home." Lance encouraged.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Lance smiled hoping to clear the worried look from Gwen's expression. She looked so much like Allura. "I'll be fine, you go protect the city like you're meant to."

"You heard the man." Gwen nodded pulling her mask on. "Let's go."

Lance watched the two vanish into the night, off to stop bad guys. Lance felt something brush against his hand as guilt sat heavy in his chest.

"Should I have told them?" He asked softly.

He glanced to his side to see the yellow lion gazing up at him. Her eyes warm with concern.

"I'm keeping them safe, right?" He asked feeling awful.

These guys trusted him with their secret and he had held his tongue. He had stayed quiet when he should have been open with them.

Slowly he sat down on the roof and closed his eyes. Yellow flooded his mind and it felt like he was wrapped in a warm blanket.

He could fall asleep like this.

"I don't want to hurt anymore." He whispered leaning against the lioness. "And I don't want to hurt anyone else."

The buzzing of his phone could not have chosen a worse time to break through the warm haze of his mind.

He had been on the verge of falling asleep.

He pulled the phone out and answered without looking. "Hey?"

"Hey kiddo, don't suppose you're free are you?"

Lance tipped his head back against the wall. "Yeah I'm free, why?"

"We've got a meteor shower that's gonna hit Paris, think you can get here and help us?"

"Sure." Lance nodded. "I'll be right with you."

"See you soon. Fly safe."

Lance nodded to Yellow. "Let's get to Paris."

When they arrived the meteor was just beginning to make its descent and of course lots of the Paris population had gathered to watch.

Were they obvious to the danger or did they not care?

Lance didn't know and he honestly didn't want to know. All he knew was that this was his job and he would do it.

Circling over the city Lance landed the Yellow lion where some of the shield agents had cleared space.

"Why are you landing, kiddo?" Tony asked as he greeted Lance from where he had just exited the yellow lion.

"Cause of the debris." Lance shrugged. "Yellow, shield up."

The glowing yellow shield formed around most of the city, the area that was most likely to be affected.

Then the yellow lion roared, loud enough to shake the ground before the shield enlarged protecting even more.

"I didn't know you could do that." Lance whispered looking up at the lion.

"You okay?" Tony asked placing his hand on Lance's shoulder.

"Kinda, Tony... Is it better for people to know even if it hurts, or to not know and not hurt?"

"What?" Tony frowned.

Lance sighed. "Someone told me their secret, now I'm wondering if I should have told them mine."

"Would they have believed you?"

"I don't know."

"Would they be able to handle it?"

Lance's mind flashed back to the alleyway fight, those two could handle anything.

"Maybe." He mumbled.

"You're old enough to make decisions for yourself now, I know you'll do the right thing. Just be careful." Tony encouraged before he flew away.

Lance nodded to himself. "Come on Blue."

The blue lion appeared and Lance was quickly getting inside so he could join the others in their fight.

Hopefully this wouldn't take long.